NL Central

NL West

Now Commenting On:

Clark to manage in Dominican Winter League

Clark to manage in Dominican Winter League

Email

Print

By
/
|

HOUSTON -- Astros third-base coach Dave Clark has been named manager of the Licey Tigers club for the Dominican Winter League season, general manager Ed Wade announced Wednesday. Clark, who served as Astros interim manager for the final 13 games of the 2009 season, has managed six seasons in the Minor Leagues and one season in the Hawaiian Winter League.

"I've been talking to the organization for a couple of years about doing it," Clark said. "We have a Dominican scout down there, and he's been my contact guy and looking out for me and something came through. I met with the guys in Spring Training, and they were telling me they wanted to me to be one of the guys. There was a panel of four guys, which included myself, and last week they called and said, they wanted me to manage."

During his six seasons (2003-08) as a Minor League manager, Clark won two league titles and twice was named Manager of the Year, first in '03 after guiding Class A Advanced Lynchburg to the Carolina League finals, and then in '06 after leading the Astros' Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks club to the Texas League championship.

He also won a league title in 2004, guiding the Class A Hickory Crawdads to the South Atlantic League championship. Clark managed four seasons in the Astros' system, spending three seasons at Corpus Christi ('05-07) before moving up to Triple-A Round Rock in '08. He became third-base coach for the Major League club in '09.

"We're extremely pleased that Clarkie was selected for the Licey job," Wade commented. "This is another stop on Dave's way to a tremendous Major League managerial career. We know his opportunity is on the near horizon, and working in the highly-competitive Dominican Winter League environment will further accentuate his qualifications."